July 10, 2010

developing muscle

I am three-quarters of the way through a 2.5 week road trip with my kids. We have camped, driven the Oregon coast, ridden ATVs on sand dunes, driven through the Avenue of the Giants redwood forest, experienced Disneyland, and now are in L.A. It's been busy. Busy, not so much in an intellectually challenging way as in a logistics and planning the next step ahead kind of way.I haven't blogged since we started the trip. I notice how my creative cells are occupied with the survival aspect; keeping me and two kids organized and safe while away from home.
I am committed to posting on my blog regularly. Yet it takes effort to make it happen. My default, when I am occupied by other things, is to not do it.
This is the case with most things outside of what's required to keep our lives going. They take effort and conscious choice. You can develop muscle at doing them, establishing a habit or routine, putting some sort of structure in place to make it happen. And then it takes less effort. Even then, sometimes it slips and you realize one day you haven't done something for weeks, even longer.
All there is to do once you notice, is to decide if you really are committed to it. If you are, consciously choose to set up the structure again to make it happen.